The Political Compass

For some reason, I’ve always liked taking quizzes that tell me what I really think from a political perspective. The World’s Smallest Political Quiz tells me that I’m slightly left and moderately libertarian, but it’s known to have a libertarian bias based on how the questions are phrased. Today, I took the quiz for the Political Compass, which pegs all but two of the ’08 U.S. Presidential candidates in the top-right quadrant (right-wing authoritarian, and yes that includes, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards). It’s interesting to see where American leaders fall in the scheme of things.

This one places me in the lower-right quadrant (left-leaning libertarian), which isn’t all that surprising. I thought I might be less left-wing (they even had the courtesy to label that side’s extreme as “communist”), but I’m nearly in the middle of that quadrant with a left/right rating of -4.38 and a libertarian/authoritarian rating of -3.64. Gandhi and the Dalai Lama are still farther out there than I am, but not by as much as I expected. I’m both more libertarian and more left-wing than any ’08 candidate. Only Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich are even in the lower-right/green quadrant.

Take the quiz for yourself and let them tell you what you think. I say that only somewhat tongue-in-cheek.